Factoids

Ali's first fight with Joe Frazier indirectly led to four deaths. During the bout itself in New York, two spectators died of heart attacks. In Malaysia, Abdul Ghani Bachik was reported to have leaped up from his chair while watching the fight on paid television and shouted, "My God, Cassius Clay has fallen!" He then suffered a fatal heart attack. In Milan, Italy, Erio Borghisiani was found dead in front of his television just hours after viewing the fight on paid television.

Legacy

A 1974 World Boxing reader poll ranked Ali as the 5th greatest heavyweight in history, historian Nat Loubet ranked him as the 9th greatest heavyweight of all-time in 1975, and John Durant, author of The Heavyweight Champions, ranked him as the 4th greatest heavyweight of all-time in 1976. BBC Sports, former WBA president Bill Brennan, The Ring editor-in-chief Nigel Collins, former Boxing Illustrated editor-in-chief Herbert G. Goldman, Showtime commentator Steve Farhood, and historian Arthur Harris all consider Ali to be the greatest heavyweight of all-time.